1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device cabinet and more particularly to the electronic device cabinet used to house parts that tend to generate a large amount of heat.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic devices including a liquid crystal projector, personal computer or a like are fabricated by using desired electronic parts such as an LSI (Large Scale Integrated circuit). To manufacture such electronic devices, a cabinet, an electronic device cabinet used to house and mechanically hold the electronic devices and to provide an electrical connection is required. A conventional electronic device is composed of an insulating material including a resin, metal or a combination of resin and metal.
In recent years, as parts or components to be housed in the electronic device cabinet increase in performance, electronic devices are being made highly functional as well. For example, a liquid crystal projector has become highly functional by employing a high-intensity lamp, and a personal computer also has become highly sophisticated by mounting, for example, a high-speed MPU (Micro Processing Unit).
As electronic devices become highly functional, heat produced in the electronic device cabinet due to such highly functional components including the high-intensity lamp, high-speed MPU or like, becomes a problem. Therefore, in order to lengthen useful life of housed electronic devices and to improve their reliability, it is important to take an effective measure for ensuring heat radiation within the electronic device cabinet.
Conventionally, in order to dissipate such heat produced within the electronic device cabinet outside, a fan is used, as a heat radiation method, which is mounted within the electronic device cabinet. In addition, to improve heat radiation efficiency by using the fan, a comparatively large-sized fan that can provide a sufficient volume of air is required.
On the other hand, in the liquid crystal projector, personal computer or like, it is required that they are not only compact and lightweight for achieving portability and energy-saving but also highly functional in order to maintain their high performance. To meet these requirements, it is inevitably required that the electronic device cabinet itself should be compact and lightweight. However, if the electronic device cabinet has to be compact and lightweight, there is no choice but to sacrifice space within the electronic device cabinet itself and therefore it is impossible to mount the comparatively large-sized fan that can provide the sufficient volume of air within the electronic device cabinet. As a result, there remains a risk of reduction in heat radiating characteristic in the electronic device cabinet.
To solve this problem, a method for achieving effective heat radiation is proposed which can provide sufficient heat radiation effects even in limited space having a small area in the electronic device cabinet. That is, a heat sink or heat pipe made of metal being excellent in thermal conductivity, for example, aluminum, is conventionally attached, as heat radiation device, to highly functional parts such as the high-intensity lamp, high-speed MPU or the like which are main heat producing sources within the electronic device cabinet. Moreover, when a part, at least, of the electronic device cabinet is constructed from metals. The metal include aluminum, magnesium alloy or a like which are excellent in thermal conductivity.
Since heat produced in the electronic device cabinet is dissipated outside by introducing such heat radiation devices made of metal being excellent thermal conductivity as described above, the electronic device cabinet can be made compact and lightweight without degradation of heat radiation efficiency. When the heat radiation device is constructed from such metal being excellent in thermal conductivity, since its structure becomes complicated, an increase in production costs is inevitable. Due to a complicated structure of the heat radiation device, it takes much time to assemble or disassemble the electronic device cabinet, causing a reduction in its maintainability. Moreover, if the electric device cabinet is composed of metal being excellent in thermal conductivity, the electronic device cabinet itself becomes heated, in a handy-type electronic device in particular, thus interfering with its portability.
Furthermore, in recent years, designing enabling products to be eco-friendly from a viewpoint of general environmental problems that are global in scope is required for various electronic devices as well. That is, it is required that electronic devices including the liquid crystal projector and personal computer described above should be designed so that they can be reused or recycled after being disposed of. In other words, it is required that products should be designed so that they can be easily assembled and disassembled when reused or recycled and that use of parts composed of a combination of composite materials should be minimized as much as possible. It is also required that a part should be constructed in a form of a module to make its life long and to reuse it. Such designing practices for electronic devices described above should be also applied to the electronic device cabinet.
The conventional electronic device cabinet is successfully made compact and lightweight without degradation in the heat radiation efficiency. However, there remain problems in that an increase in production costs and degradation in maintainability are inevitable, therefore making it difficult to design the electronic device cabinet to be very eco-friendly. That is, as described above, in the conventional electronic device cabinet, since the heat radiation device made of metal being excellent in thermal conductivity is attached to the heat producing sources themselves within the electronic device cabinet, sufficient heat radiation effects can be achieved even in limited space and the electronic device cabinet can be made compact and lightweight without degradation in heat radiation characteristic. However, in many cases, structure of such heat radiation devices is inevitably complicated, thus causing the increase in production costs and decrease in maintainability. Moreover, when the electronic device cabinet is designed so as to be eco-friendly in consideration of future reuse or recycling, an increase in weight of components constituting the electronic device cabinet is inevitable, thus causing a high cost as well.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device cabinet which can be made compact and lightweight without degradation in heat radiation efficiency and can avoid an increase in its production costs and a decrease in its maintainability and which can be easily designed so as to be eco-friendly, easily reused or recycled.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic device cabinet for housing desired parts containing electronic parts constituting an electronic device, the electronic device cabinet including:
an intermediate frame body made of insulating materials;
an upper covering body composed of metal or alloy mounted in an upper portion of an intermediate frame body in a freely detachable manner;
a lower covering body composed of metal or alloy mounted in a lower portion of the intermediate frame body in a freely detachable manner.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the upper covering body has an approximately rectangular or square shape; and the lower covering body has an approximately rectangular or square shape.
In the foregoing mode wherein the upper covering body has an approximately rectangular shape; and the lower covering body has an approximately rectangular shape, a further preferable mode is one wherein the intermediate frame body has both side faces extending in a longitudinal direction and both side faces extending in a traverse direction and wherein two or more fitting nails are mounted in a lower portion of both side faces extending in the longitudinal direction and two or more approximately L-shaped guide grooves in an upper portion of both side faces extending in the traverse direction.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the approximately rectangular lower covering body has both side faces extending in the longitudinal direction and both side faces are bent upward in an approximately L-shaped form and wherein two or more fitting holes corresponding to the fitting nails mounted on the intermediate frame body are formed at both side faces and further wherein the lower covering body is attached to the intermediate frame body by fitting the fitting nails into the fitting holes.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the upper covering frame has both side faces extending in the longitudinal direction and both side faces are bent downward in an approximately L-shaped form and wherein two or more fitting hooks corresponding to the approximately L-shaped guide grooves formed on the intermediate frame body and further wherein the upper covering body is attached to the intermediate frame body by fitting the fitting hooks into the guide grooves and then by sliding the fitting hooks along the guide grooves.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the intermediate frame body is integrally molded using resins.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein an air intake port and an air exhaust port are formed on both side faces extending in the traverse direction of the intermediate frame body.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein, in a corner of the intermediate frame body, a thin plate portion is formed by partially making thin plates constituting both side faces extending in the longitudinal direction and in the traverse direction.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein two or more slide guides are formed on an inner side of the intermediate frame body and wherein two or more compartment plates used to partition space in the intermediate frame body are attached to the slide guide in a freely detachable manner.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein a binding portion composed of positioning nails and positioning pins used to fix parts to be housed is mounted on the intermediate frame body.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the binding portion is mounted at a plurality of places for every part to be housed.
Furthermore, a preferable mode is one wherein the positioning nails are disposed in the vicinity of the positioning pins within the intermediate frame body.